receive any new cavalry at present without arms. I have now many more cavalry than I can arm. Inform me when the five Tennessee regiments of infantry ordered to you arrived at Murfreesborough. Have you the three field batteries ordered to report to you? Will order Lieutenant Rowley to report to you as engineer officer. Arrest officers and men coming from army in Kentucky who have not written authority from proper officer to be absent. Participants in battle are arriving at Murfreesborough too soon after battle. I have no reliable news from Kentucky. What you send is most encouraging. Answer immediately, and give any more news you may have received.

SAM. JONES,

Major-General, Commanding.

KNOXVILLE, October 17, 1862.

Honorable GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,

Secretary of War:

I am informed that the President is authorized to suspend the execution of the conscript act in any section troops under any previous act. I earnestly recommend tht he suspend it in East Tennessee for a few days; say until the 1st November, and designate the act under which I may receive organized troops. If this is done, I can, I am sure, have in the service before the end of the month nearly every man in East Tennessee now worth having. The measures I am taking to produce a loyal feeling in East Tennessee will be aided. People who have fled to the mountains to avoid conscription will return to the cultivation of the land and gathering corn, all of which is now much neglected, and the troops needed to enforce the conscript law may be better employed elsewhere. Will write more fully on same subject. Please answer as early as possible.

SAM. JONES,

Major-General.

KNOXVILLE, TENN., October 17, 1862.

Honorable GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,

Secretary of War:

In my telegram of this morning I omitted to say that if the President gives the authority asked for I can, besides getting the troops mentioned, fill up the seven Tennessee regiments now under my command and every much reduced.

SAM. JONES,

Major-General.

[Indorsement.]

The SECRETARY OF WAR:

What of recruits for the regiment in Virginia? The question is one of much difficulty, as you know from representations of the members of East Tennessee in the Confederate States Congress. Make the first inquiry and wait for letter promised.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.